Terrington St Clement is a large village in Norfolk, in the UK. It is situated in the drained marshlands to the south of The Wash, 7 miles west of King's Lynn, Norfolk, and 5 miles east of Sutton Bridge, Lincolnshire, on the old route of the A17 trunk road. The parish covers an area of 45.38 square kilometres (17.52 sq mi). Much of the farm land is of alluvial silt and clay which has been reclaimed from the sea amounting to approximately half of the total parish area.

Terrington Parish Church

The population of Terrington St Clement has grown substantially. In area it is the third largest civil parish in Norfolk.[2]

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Terrington St Clement has a wide selection of amenities, including a supermarket, farm shop, two doctor's surgeries, a post office, newsagents, bakers, fish & chip shop, Chinese takeaway, hairdressers and an estate agent in addition to the well-known Marshland Stores, a traditional hardware store with a very large range of products. It also has a village hall, scout hut, and two pubs, The King William and The Wildfowler, both of which serve food.

The village is linked to King's Lynn and Spalding, Lincolnshire, by a half-hourly bus service, and to Wisbech by a less frequent bus service that skirts the south of the village.

Terrington St Clement has state run primary and secondary schools. St Clement's High School was the centre of some press attention, firstly when its erstwhile head, Richard Wealthall, was singled out for praise and a visit from Prime MinisterTony Blair, and again subsequently when Mr Wealthall was found to have been guilty of bullying and nepotism.[3] The primary school also attracted some unwanted press attention when it was placed into special measures in 2007 by Ofsted.[4] However, the most recent report from 10 and 11 March 2011 described the school as a 'good' school with 6 'outstanding' features. This report can be viewed from the school's website: http://www.terrington-st-clement.norfolk.sch.uk

In AD 970 Godric[disambiguation needed] gifted part of the lands of Turrintonea to the monks of Ramsey Abbey. The name Terrington comes from the early Saxon “Tun” meaning enclosure or homestead of Tir(a)s people. The settlement is referred to in the Domesday Book as Tilinghetuna.

By the medieval period the small settlement which began on raised ground on the edge of the marsh had grown substantially. The magnificent Parish Church, dedicated to St Clement (i.e. Pope Clement I), known as the "Cathedral of the Marshland", was built in the 14th century by Edmund Gonville, Rector of Terrington, who founded Gonville Hall (now Gonville and Caius College) at Cambridge University.

Methodists arrived in the village in 1813 and during the Victorian era the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel [1] and Primitive Methodist Chapel were established along with a Salvation Army headquarters and 3 other mission chapels. A lively shopping centre had developed by the beginning of the 20th century, but most of the independent traders have now disappeared, along with all but two of the village's pubs.